Representing those cities, a group of finance directors, insurance risk managers and officials with similar responsibilities have gotten together to try to find ways to reduce soaring city insurance premiums. Their efforts should be encouraged and imitated.

Calling themselves The Bunch, these officials have begun talking about two sensible concepts: pooling money and self-insurance.

By using the combined expertise, the 10 cities are pooling their brainpower. By jointly insuring certain kinds of risks, such as general liability and automobiles, several cities can share their coverage and probably reduce their premiums. By self-insuring certain kinds of risks, they can avoid paying some insurance premiums entirely.

This kind of insurance pooling plan is catching on in various places, including Lee County (the Fort Myers area) and Dade County, in which the Metro-Dade government acts as insurer on worker`s compensation for most cities.

Insurance premiums are getting so prohibitive that some American cities have had to cut back on public services, even closing playgrounds and other public facilities where risks of lawsuits are high. In three cities alone, Margate, Plantation and Lauderhill, the combined insurance premiums just for general liability total $850,000 a year.

The Bunch talked over their ideas last week with the Northwest Council of Mayors, which asked Margate Finance Director Sam Moschella, a member of The Bunch, to investigate the matter further and report back in December.

Rather than competing with each other, all cities ought to be examining every possible opportunity to cooperate like this to get a bigger bang for the taxpayer`s buck.